Welp, I'm impressed with the new season première. It took awhile to get going, but given that it seems to be setting up a more ambitious story arc than any previous Archer season has attempted, I'm ok with that. Once it got going it was every bit as good as any previous season as far as I'm concerned. The new format has proven to be a wonderful fit for the cast. I'm very much liking the new voice talent as well. Getting J. K. Simmons to play a recurring character is no small feat.

Some spoileriffic observations:

We're obviously supposed to think that's Archer in the pool in the opening shot, but there's no way they're going to kill off their main character yet, since they're planning more seasons after this one. I noticed that one of the guards in Alan Shapiro's mansion bore a striking resemblance to Archer with a moustache. Could that be the guard in the pool?

Is the imposter Veronica Deane actually Katya? The A. V. Club certainly seems to think so, speculating that she sounds like Ona Grauer. Is the character's voice actor credited? I can't find information on the episode's cast on IMDB, apart from a couple of technical people.

I liked the reference to the plot of Chinatown. If you're going to have the group set up a detective agency in Los Angeles, might as well go all-in with the references to L.A. detective stories.

Super glad the show is back.

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“All for ourselves, and nothing for other people, seems, in every age of the world, to have been the vile maxim of the masters of mankind.” -Adam Smith

I'm happy as can be with the new season. I may have to hunt down a blue shirt dress to be Pam now, not that I mind.

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"freedom to differ is not limited to things that do not matter much. That would be a mere shadow of freedom. The test of its substance is the right to differ as to things that touch the heart of the existing order."
- Justice Robert Jackson, West Virginia State Board of Ed. v. Barnette

After last season I was feeling ambivalent about watching this season. And now after watching the first episode, whatever I was feeling was so very wrong. Everything was brilliant. Also, livius needs to fess up that she's writing for the Archer television show. She knows why I'm saying that.

I didn't think last season was bad, it had some decent episodes, but when the stand out episode is the team trapped in an elevator, you know something isn't going quite right.

Given three self imposed retoolings of the show, it's clear the creator was burning out a and I hope he got it out of his system. If things continue like the first episode, I think this might be the similar but different he was looking for.

A few interesting this to note from an interview with the creator Adam Reed,
the majority of this season will take place in LA and the Hollywood mystery will drive the season.
The first scene with maybe-archer floating in the pool is actually the final scene of the season, so we will have to wait the whole season to find out if it's really archer.

__________________
"freedom to differ is not limited to things that do not matter much. That would be a mere shadow of freedom. The test of its substance is the right to differ as to things that touch the heart of the existing order."
- Justice Robert Jackson, West Virginia State Board of Ed. v. Barnette

I love Zero Effect too! I actually saw it twice in the movie theater, believe it or not. I took two long lunches from work back to back. Bill Pullman was the best he's ever been (The Last Seduction being a close second) and Ben Stiller was the best he'd ever been until Tropic Thunder. When I first saw Kim Dickens in Deadwood, I hollered like a bobby soxer. Also one of the greatest soundtracks ever assembled, imo.

As for Archer, so far I'm loving the new season. The extended Sunset Boulevard opening had me at hello. Other things I loved: Archer's falls down the cliff which was a straight Homer Simpson reference, the answering machine prank that wasn't, the spinning chairs/robot, tons more shit I can't think of right now.

So Archer is firing on all cylinders again.
The most recent episode was absolutely hilarious!
From the the fast paced movement to the bleached asshole, to the quietly inserted phrasing. It's easily up there with early episodes that made this show a classic in the making.

Renewed for three more seasons and I couldn’t be happier. My only complaint is that they’re apparently going to be eight-episode seasons. But on the other hand, if they maintain quality levels as high as those they maintained throughout season seven, I can’t complain too much. I feel like the shorter season allowed them to focus the storyline and jokes even better than they had in previous seasons, and the season-long arc worked really well with the private investigation concept, to the point where it made me wish they’d used these kinds of arcs before (Archer Vice was kind of similar, but it wasn’t as tightly plotted).

Adam Reed has apparently commented that he wants to keep doing the private investigation concept past season seven, which I’m quite happy about because it was a really good way to reinvent the show and, for once, the cast actually seems to be kind of good at it. Apparently he’s also begun plotting a gameplan for the end of the show (which he began doing halfway through season seven) so hopefully if season ten will be the final season (which is far from confirmed yet) it’ll be able to end gracefully.

Anyway, yeah, this is one of my favourite shows on television right now and I’m so glad we’ll be getting more of it.

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“All for ourselves, and nothing for other people, seems, in every age of the world, to have been the vile maxim of the masters of mankind.” -Adam Smith